Movies Of The Year(s): The Top 150

I haven’t done this for awhile, so I wanted to revise and update my Top 20 movies. Of course, in order to do that I needed a list of movies I loved, which I could whittle down to the requisite number. My initial list was 152 movies long. With two eliminated to avoid that inelegant number, I was left with these 150. At this moment, these are my 150 favorite films, the 150 movies that I think are the best.

150. L’Avventura149. Magnolia148. Big Night147. Alien146. The Life Of Brian145. The Last Of The Mohicans144. Modern Times143. The World142. Battleship Potemkin141. Flight Of The Red Balloon140. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance139. Happy Together138. Children Of Paradise137. Kill Bill, Vol. 1136. The Wind Will Carry Us135. Tropical Malady134. LA Story133. Mean Streets132. The Princess Bride131. The 36th Chamber Of Shaolin

130. Monty Python And The Holy Grail129. Still Life128. The Man With A Movie Camera127. Zulu126. Chimes At Midnight125. Goodbye Dragon Inn124. Shoot The Piano Player123. I’m Not There122. The Shining121. The English Patient120. Throne Of Blood119. Lola118. Three Times117. Boogie Nights116. A Matter Of Life And Death115. Yojimbo114. Taste Of Cherry113. I Am Cuba112. Pulp Fiction111. Sansho The Bailiff

50. Once Upon A Time In The West49. The New World48. The Shop Around The Corner47. Black Narcissus46. Rashomon45. City Lights44. L’Eclisse43. Funny Face42. The Manchurian Candidate41. The Seventh Seal40. Young Mr. Lincoln39. Ugetsu38. A Canterbury Tale37. North By Northwest36. The Big Sleep35. A Woman Is A Woman34. It’s A Wonderful Life33. Late Spring32. Stagecoach31. Steamboat Bill Jr

30. The Birds29. Miller’s Crossing28. The Empire Strikes Back27. Dr. Strangelove26. 2001: A Space Odyssey25. Do The Right Thing24. The Big Lebowski23. Ran22. The Rules Of The Game21. Duck Soup

20. The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg19. Citizen Kane18. Millennium Mambo17. Playtime16. The Red Shoes15. Manhattan14. Vertigo13. All About Eve12. Days Of Heaven11. The Third Man

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4 thoughts on “Movies Of The Year(s): The Top 150”

Hi, Sean. Do you explain anywhere how you build your lists of favorites? For example, do you differentiate between enjoyment and artistic merit? I'm supposing that some folks build their lists based solely on whether they “like” a movie or not, whereas others build theirs based on passionless artistic judgement, others on some mixture of the two, and others on some other parameters altogether.

“The order isn't definitive: ranking works of art is not meant to be a hierarchical activity, but rather an organizational one. It gives me a chance to write about some movies. It's interesting trivially and comparatively to see what movies came out at the same time, to see the progression of film history. And lists are just plain fun to argue over. They are meant to be conversation starters, not finishers. I don't have any particular criteria for what ranks above what, it's just my own subjective opinion, informed by a reasonable knowledge of film and film history (though not nearly what it should be, as you can see from the Unseen lists in the individual Movies Of The Year entries).

The rankings change over time: when I see a new movie from a year I've already posted, I add it to The Big List here. Sometimes I'll see a movie again and my opinion of it will change, or my feelings about a film will evolve over time, and so I'll move it up or down its list here as well. The Big List is, and always will be, a work in progress.”